Preview Baseball at the Olympic Games in Beijing
On Wednesday August 13, the Baseball tournament at the Olympic games in Beijing starts. Eight teams qualified for the competition with Cuba the defending gold medalist. They have won the title in three of the four medal events at the Olympics since 1992, only losing 2000, where they got shut out by Ben Sheets and Team USA. In Athens 2004 Cuba beat Australia 6-2 in the finals with Japan taking third place with an 11-2 victory against Canada.
It is going to be the last Baseball event at the Olympics for some time, as the IOC kicked them out of the program for London 2012 at the congress in Singapore 2005. However Major League Baseball and the IBAF are working together with the complete baseball community to bring their sport back for 2016. We are hopeful that the IOC is considering to take baseball back at next year’s congress in Copenhagen.
Back to the Olympics in Beijing. The participants, who will kick off the schedule tomorrow at the Wukesong Baseball Complex, are host China, Cuba, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the USA and the Netherlands as the only European team. The preliminary round consists of a single round robin with the top four teams advancing into the semi-finals. Looking at the rosters and the results at the last international baseball events we have to consider Cuba, Japan, the USA and South Korea as favorites for the gold medal. Canada, Taiwan and Holland could surprise. China is probably the heavy underdog, though we have to admit that they progressed well over the past few years.
Schedule:
Wednesday, August 13:
10:30 Taiwan – Netherlands
11:30 China – Canada
18:00 Korea – USA
19:00 Cuba – Japan
Complete Schedule (Livescoring, Box scores)
The Eight Teams
Cuba
They finished first in three of the four Olympics, since Baseball is a medal competition, only losing the 2000 finals, when they ran into Ben Sheets and the United States. In 2004 they beat Australia in the title game. However besides the dominance by the Cuban national team at International baseball events in the last two decades, the folks on the Caribbean island are getting nervous, as they the squad has finished only in second in the last few tournaments, losing to several different American teams at the Olympic Qualifier, the Baseball World Cup and most recently at the Haarlem Baseball Week in Holland. Of course this doesn’t mean the Cubans aren’t any more favored to win gold, but you can see a trend.
Their best players in this year’s Olympics are on the offensive side Yulieksy Gourriel, Frederich Cepeda, Alex Bell and Alfredo Despaigne. All four can hit for power and for average. The rest of the lineup is as well as impressive, despite the missing of injured Osmani Urrutia. Pedro Lazo, Adiel Palma and Jonder Martinez are the main stays on the pitching staff. Aroldis Chapman and Elier Sanchez were left of the roster by new manager Antonio Pacheco.
Their biggest obstacle could be the long season for most of the players, as they are on the road for several months now.
USA
Roster, Media Guide, Official Website
After not even qualifying for the Olympics 2004 and the disappointing finishes at the Baseball Word Cup 2005 and the World Baseball Classic 2006, the American Baseball Federation made some changes in the coaching staff and the selection process of the national team, which led to impressive international results. They won the Olympic qualifier 2006 in Cuba and won the Baseball World Cup 2007 against the Cuba, after a drought of 33 years without a title. Led by Roy Oswalt and Ben Sheets, Team USA won the gold medal in Sydney 2000 and finished in third in 1996 in Atlanta.
The star of Team USA is definitely hall of fame manager Davey Johnson, who led the New York Mets to the World Series title in 1986 and is probably the best skipper in the tournament. He selected a balanced roster, which is capable to play an international style of baseball. The pitching staff is led by the only college player Stephen Strasburg, who is projected to be selected as number one in the 2009 amateur draft. Besides him Johnson relies on starters Brett Anderson and Brendan Knight, in addition to relievers Jeff Stevens and Casey Weathers. The biggest name offensive wise is Indians prospect Matt LaPorta. Baseball World Cup 2007 MVP Jayson Nix is also aboard.
Together with Cuba and Japan, the USA is among the favorites for gold.
Japan
Japan appeared in all five medal competitions at the Olympics so far, finishing in second in 1996, taking bronze in 1992 and 2004. However they are still waiting for the jackpot. In 2006 they stunned host USA to take first place in the first World Baseball Classic and finished in third place at the Baseball World Cup with a college team last November. Afterwards, they used their pros to win the Asian Olympic Qualifier. Like in 2004, the Japanese Baseball Federation selected only professional players for the national team roster and wants to win the gold medal finally.
Their most known player for non-Japanese baseball insider is the 22-year-old Yu Darvish, who is on the radar of several MLB clubs, who like to sign him in the coming years. He is expected to start on Wednesday against Cuba. Their most powerful hitters are Shuichi Murata, Norichika Aoki and Hiroyuki Nakajima.
As like in Athens 2004 Japan comes with one goal to Beijing and this is to finish in first. They have selected the best possible roster, missing only MLB stars like Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka.
South Korea
The 2008 Olympics are the third appearance for South Korea with their best finish, coming in 2000, when they won the bronze medal. After a mixed Baseball World Cup with the fifth place and second place in the Olympic qualifier this March, they are among the favorites in Beijing. They showed their strength in international baseball by defending the title at the World Junior AAA Baseball Championship in Edmonton, weeks ago. They also impressed during the warm-up period before the start of the games, when they beat Cuba 15-3 in an exhibition.
With their style of play the Korean National team is a tough opponent for every team, having a roster full of good pitching, some power in the lineup and speed on the bases. The biggest name on the team is the only player, who is not from a Korean professional club. Seung-Yeop Lee hit five homeruns in the World Baseball Classic two years ago and is currently playing in Japan. Won-Sam Jang and Seung-Jin Song lead the pitching staff.
If they can produce enough offense against the strong pitching departments of Cuba, Japan and the USA they could join the hunt for gold.
Netherlands
We do not have to say much about the team, as every regular reader of Mister-Baseball.com knows the team pretty well. The lone European participant in the field of the eight teams appear in their fourth Olympic games, only missing the Athens 2004 edition. The team under manager Robert Eenhoorn is making great strides towards the top of international baseball, finishing in fourth place at the Baseball World Cups in 2005 and 2007. They qualified for Beijing by winning the European Championship last September in Barcelona, Spain. However their biggest accomplishment the past twelve months was the victory against Cuba in Taiwan.
The roster is missing some of their strongest players, as Roger Bernadina (Nationals) and Rick Van Den Hurk (Marlins) among others are not available due to Major League restrictions or injuries (Loek Van Mil). The pitching staff is led by Leon Boyd, Shairon Martis and new edition Juan Carlos Sulberan (18 years old), who impressed in a 1-2 loss to Cuba in the Haarlem Baseball Week and in an 8-3 exhibition win against Canada, a few days ago. They count on Sidney de Jong, Eugene Kingsale and Sharnol Adriana to provide enough firepower to produce runs, which was the problem in the past few weeks during the preparation period.
This is also the key to the success. The Dutch team has to score runs like in the Baseball World Cup to have a chance for the semi-finals and the medal round.
Canada
It is the second appearance for Canada at the Olympics after finishing fourth in 2004. They missed the final round at the Baseball World Cup last November, but came back to win the Olympic Qualifier at the same place this March against team like South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. Besides they didn’t have much success on the international baseball level.
The Canadian Olympic roster is nearly the same like in March in Taiwan, leading with Major League experienced players like Adam Stern, Scott Thorman, Chris Reitsma and Rheal Cormier. Also back with the team is infielder Stubby Clapp. The pitching staff is missing Scott Richmond (promotion to the Blue Jays) and Philippe Aumont (injured). With these two not available they have to rely on their offense with Nick Weglarz, Emmanuel Garcia and Michael Saunders, who can out-slug their opponents on every single day.
However the maple leafs struggled in the recent exhibitions series against team USA at the beginning of August with the pitching giving up homeruns in bunches. These games indicated that Canada probably has to fight with Taiwan and the Netherlands for fifth place in the tournament.
Taiwan
Taiwan already is appearing in their third Olympic games, winning the silver medal in Barcelona 1992. They had some nice results recently on the international front, advancing into the final round at the Baseball World Cup and finishing in third at the Olympic Qualifier this March. But they were the host country in both events, which might boosted their results with the home crowd behind their backs. Now they have to prove that they can win outside their own venues.
The roster is mainly loaded with players from the Asian Baseball leagues with Futures Game MVP Che-Hsuan Lin among fellow Red Sox minor leaguer Chih-Hsian Chiang the only team members from American clubs. Besides the two the offense relies on Cheng-Ming Peng and Kuo-Hui Lo. Pitchers Chen-Chang Lee and Hui-Lung Pan impressed during the exhibition series against Chinese Professional Baseball League teams.
It is doubtful that Taiwan can repeat their success of the last two main international tournaments with the loaded rosters of their opponents. They will fight with Canada and Holland for fifth place, but may fall behind the two to finish in seventh place.
China
The Chinese baseball team is the heavy underdog in the tournament with a third place finish at the Asian World Cup Qualifier in 2005 the best result on the international stage. As the host country they didn’t have to qualify and invested much to bring a competitive team to the event. They hired former Major Leaguer Jim Lefebvre as manager, hoping to upset the other seven participants in one or two games.
Nobody knows for sure what to expect from the team. They played three exhibition games against the United States the past weekend. Obviously they lost all three, but the results were not that lopsided, as you might expect. Several experts, who saw the team in recent years said, that they progressed pretty well from an awful start, although it would be a stretch to expect a win by China at the Olympic Games.
Photos:
© Michael Zarrilli (George Bush with IBAF president Harvey Schiller),
© BrianFlemingPhotography.com (Brendan Knight, Team USA)
© Ron Wickert, www.eott.nl (Dutch Hitter at night, Haarlem Baseball Week)
